CHICAGO,
ILLINOIS--Friday's Chicago Defender reported that an official with the American
Medical Association said the CEO of the physicians' organization would not be
meeting with disability rights activists over the controversial "Ashley
Treatment".

"I know that there is not going to be a meeting between the AMA exec and
the protestors," said Jann Ingmire, director of media relations for JAMA and
its archives. "That is not going to happen."

On January 11, a crowd of about two-dozen disability rights advocates,
many in wheelchairs, gathered at the AMA's national headquarters in Chicago.
The activists, organized by the Feminist Response in Disability Activism, and
including members of the grassroots disability rights groups ADAPT and Not Dead
Yet, were there to demand that the AMA condemn the practice of forcing children
with disabilities to undergo hormone treatments and surgeries to keep them
small.

The procedure, named by the Seattle parents of the anonymous 9-year-old
girl known only as "Ashley X", was revealed last October in an article
published in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, a periodical
of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The protesters learned that AMA CEO Dr. Michael Maves was out of town.
They ended the demonstration, however, only after his secretary committed to
arranging an appointment for him with representatives from the groups, they
said.

FRIDA member Amber Smock, who was instrumental in organizing the January
protest, told the Defender her group is working on a letter, phone call and fax
campaign to urge the AMA to meet with activists.

"The goal is really to open discussion with the AMA and for the AMA to
engage with the disability community," she said. "Now it's a good opportunity
for doctors and people in the disability community to come together."

Mainstream and grassroots disability groups in the United States and the
United Kingdom have launched campaigns to prevent the use of medical procedures
designed to keep people with disabilities physically small.

Michigan disability rights advocate Susan Fitzmaurice launched a website
allowing fellow advocates to sign on to a statement responding to the "Ashley
Treatment". As of this writing, more than 400 individuals and groups had signed
on to the statement.